Indonesia’s Trada Alam Minera continues to shrink its fleet by scrapping an LR1 product tanker that was used for storage.
The 64,300-dwt Pelita Bangsa (built 1986) has been sold for $340 per ldt, or $4.27m, on an as-is basis in Indonesia.
Cash-buying sources suggested that the ship is heading to a recycling yard in Chittagong, Bangladesh, under tow. That explains the slightly low price. If delivered under its own power, it would probably have fetched about $35 per ldt more.
The Pelita Bangsa has not traded actively as a tanker for several years.
It was mostly used as a floating offshore storage unit after being acquired from Singapore’s Ocean Tankers in 2011.
The sale in effect ends Trada’s involvement with large tankers.
Although the company was on course to become one of Indonesia’s largest tanker owners a decade ago, when it was known as Trada Maritime, it is now left with one small coastal tanker under its direct ownership.
Trada is also the Indonesian partner of MOL in LNG carrier owner Hanochem Shipping, which owns the 126,300-cbm LNG Aquarius (built 1977), which is used as a shuttle vessel to supply the floating storage and regasification unit Nusantara Regas Satu (built 1977) off West Java.
‘At Pertamina’s mercy’
Otherwise, the bulk of the Trada fleet today comprises tugs and barges that are used to support its mining operations.
Coal mining has become Trada’s core business focus since 2017, when it began acquiring mines and mining service companies in Kabupaten Kutai Barat, in Indonesia’s East Kalimantan province. Tanker owning was put firmly on the back burner.
Sources close to the company said it wanted to diversify away from the domestic tanker sector, as it is dominated by state oil major Pertamina, which has a monopoly on tanker charters.
“You are really at Pertamina’s mercy if you are a tanker owner in Indonesia,” a local shipowning source told TradeWinds this week. “It is hard to have a long-term plan for your business because it all depends on whether they give the next contract to you or to someone else.”
Trada’s top managers could not be reached for comment on their shipping plans.
However, sources close to the Jakarta-based company said it is open to acquiring more vessels, but only against long-term contracts with numbers that would justify the investment.
